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New Scientist Live

Sabre-toothed tigers in Ice Age Los Angeles had bad back trouble

Daniel Eskridge/Stocktrek Images

IT’S not easy being a predator. The sabre-toothed tigers and dire wolves that roamed the area that is now Los Angeles 12,000 years ago often had fractures. The nature of their injuries reflected the way they hunted.

A study of thousands of skeletons of extinct species by Caitlin Brown and Mairin Balisi of the University of California, Los Angeles, found injuries on 4.3 per cent of the tiger bones and 2.8 per cent of wolf bones. Tiger injuries largely affected their shoulders and back, while the wolves generally fractured ankles, wrists and upper necks (Nature Ecology & Evolution, DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0131).

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The tigers probably sustained back injuries while ambushing prey such as bison and camels, and wrestling them into submission. By contrast, dire wolves hunted in packs, running down their prey.

“They have to do everything with their mouths,” says Blaire Van Valkenburgh, the team leader. “So we expected to see injuries where they were kicked in the head, and maybe injuries in the limbs, either by being kicked or by tripping while in hot pursuit.”

This article appeared in print under the headline “Sabre-toothed tigers had bad backs”